This page intentionally left blank An Introduction to Japanese Society Second edition In the second edition of this book, which has become essential reading for students of Japanese society, Yoshio Sugimoto uses both English and Japanese sources to update and expand upon his original narrative. In so doing, he challenges the traditional notion that Japan comprises a uniform culture, and draws attention to its subcultural diversity and class competition. The author also examines what he calls “friendly authoritarianism” – the force behind the Japanese tendency to be ostensibly faithful to particular groups and companies. An Introduction to Japanese Society offers a wide-ranging approach to all aspects of Japanese society, with chapters on class, geographical and generational variation, work, education, gender, minorities, popular culture and the establishment. Yoshio Sugimoto is Professor of Sociology at La Trobe Uni- versity, Melbourne. [...]... stratification of Japanese society remains peripheral and does not appear to have received the attention it deserves This book makes a modest attempt to rectify this imbalance by focussing on subcultural diversity and class competition within Japanese society The second bias pertains to the continuing dominance of the socalled group model of Japanese society, which maintains that the Japanese are essentially... designed as an introductory text, it invites readers to familiarize themselves with contemporary debates and controversies among Japanese analysts who write in Japanese Many students in the English-language world would find it difficult to read Japanese publications in Japanese, though they can pursue their interests in reading books and articles in English Students just beginning in Japanese studies will... and outsiders’ views of Japanese society For this purpose, I have introduced a number of Japanese emic concepts and propositions to demonstrate Japanese perceptions and self-images Financial support from the Australian Research Council enabled me to collect and examine data for this study Thanks to the ARC grant, I have been able to travel several times between Melbourne and Tokyo, live in Japan for... delight in treading the paths outlined in this text Yoshio Sugimoto, 1997 Preface to the second edition Five years is a long period in the social sciences So many changes have taken place in Japanese society since the publication of the first edition of this book in 1997 that I felt obliged to update factual data and statistical information for it to reflect Japan’s contemporary landscape with accuracy The... who have kindly paid scrupulous attention to every detail of the text To my pleasant surprise, this book has been used in an unexpectedly large number of university courses around the world I would be happy to receive feedback from readers to improve the quality of future editions Yoshio Sugimoto, 2002 xiii 42 46 41 44 KYUSHU 45 43 40 35 Tokyo Kanagawa Niigata Toyama Ishikawa Fukui Yamanashi Nagano Gifu... individualistic Westerners According to Nakane,48 Japanese social organizations were vertically structured and apt to cut across class and occupational lines, unlike their Western counterparts which were horizontally connected and inclined to transcend company kinship lines These writings were published when the Japanese economy began to make some inroad into the US market To a considerable extent, they... this process, the Japanese are inclined to lose a sense of devotion to the groups and organizations to which they belong and to experience the state of anomie much as do citizens of advanced industrialized societies in the West Convergence theorists concede that these four transformations have not yet run their courses, but maintain that they head undeniably in the 20 An Introduction to Japanese Society... refers to the allegedly unique psychological inclination among the Japanese to seek emotional satisfaction by prevailing upon and depending on their superiors.3 They feel no need for any explicit demonstration of individuality Loyalty to the group is a primary value Giving oneself to the promotion and realization of the group’s goals imbues the Japanese with a special psychological satisfaction Second, ... researchers are preoccupied with inquiries into the “hidden 4 An Introduction to Japanese Society shape,”8 “basic layer,” and “archetype”9 of Japanese culture These works portray Japanese society as highly homogeneous, with only limited internal variation, and give it some all-embracing label Hamaguchi, for example, who presents what he calls a contextual model of the Japanese, maintains that the concept of... of Japanese society, yet subcultures do proliferate on a number of non-racial dimensions, such as region, gender, age, occupation, education, and so forth To the extent that subculture is defined as a set of value expectations and lifestyles shared by a section of a given population, Japanese society indeed reveals an abundance of subcultural groupings along these lines As a 6 An Introduction to Japanese . left blank An Introduction to Japanese Society Second edition In the second edition of this book, which has become essential reading for students of Japanese society, Yoshio Sugimoto uses both. behind the Japanese tendency to be ostensibly faithful to particular groups and companies. An Introduction to Japanese Society offers a wide-ranging approach to all aspects of Japanese society,. w3 h2" alt="" An Introduction to Japanese Society Second Edition Yoshio Sugimoto La Trobe University    Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,